When last I posted, Vernell had tried to get out of bed and fell. We did get to talk to Kathy Wheeler and she assured us the Vernell did not hike herself over the side rail on her bed. The nurse was not completely truthful with us because the side rail was apparently not in place, thus allowing Vernell the freedom to get up (and fall) on her own. They were going to make more frequent visits to her room and possibly put a bed alarm on so they would know if she was trying to get up without help.
Don got a call a call yesterday (Tuesday) evening. Vernell had a fall in the bathroom. This time she had been walked with the nurse to the bathroom and was left sitting on the commode... the nurse turned around to do something in the room and apparently Vernell had finished and was attempting to stand and walk back to bed and she went down right there in the bathroom. They checked her over carefully and have been monitoring her... so far she is just achy - no majors issues.
We went this morning to see her. She is back to herself cognitively, no confusion or paranoia stuff - Praise God! The results of her UA came back clear, no UTI. We found out that the confusion and cloudiness for her was probably due to her dr stopping the med that regulates her low blood pressure - aggggghhhh that should never have happened. Not sure why we never get to share our input with the drs. We are her caregivers and have been for 3 years now. We know her better htan anyone and understand how she responds to various meds - but nobody asks us what we think. Our primary care dr keeps telling us that we should go to school to finish medical training because we already know more than most people going through training. We take our privilege of taking care of Vernell very seriously. I love to shock medical professionals with the extent of our knowledge regarding her conditions. They are always so surprised that we know thier medical jargon.
The rehab staff had their weekly progress meeting yesterday. When we talked to Kathy this morning, she let us know that other than the falls, Vernell is doing great with therapy. Now that her bp is back to being regulated with meds and she has her wits back about her, she realizes how this is the best place for her to be to bulid her strength. Vernell did not ask us today to "just get me out of here". It was hard to hear her ask us that for the past couple visits.
They are looking at a minimum of 4 more weeks, re-evaluating progress along the way. So she will be there through Christmas and New Years - it stinks. We did breathe a sigh of relief though, to finally have SOME kind of information. Now we can plan and prepare for her return home and also try to do things away from the house with the kids while we have this respite time. Once she is back home, we will need to be here with her all the time.
Vernell is still very weak and has a long way to go, but she is getting better each day. When we saw her today, our first thought was not "gosh, is she going to die soon?" It has been a hard 4 weeks and we are sure to ride these emotional waves until she gets home. Vernell will be there on the 19th of December, which is the day that Pop died. That is going to be a very hard day.
So, for this day, we are feeling better about her progress. She seems to be more at ease being there. Now we just watch and wait while the therapists work with her every day. We pray that she gets stronger and stronger. God contiunes to hold us together day by day.
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